Sometimes, standing out means following the rules.
In 2016, Black Friday was still finding its feet in Greece. While many retailers were approaching it cautiously, we saw an opportunity for a smaller brand to make some noise by going back to what made Black Friday special in the first place.
Year: 2016
Client: TopShoes
Industry: Fashion & Retail
Role: Strategy, Creative Direction & Digital Marketing
THE ASK
The Greek e-commerce market was getting crowded, with bigger retailers competing aggressively on price.
For TopShoes, a smaller fashion retailer, joining the discount war wasn’t a sustainable option.
Meanwhile, Black Friday was gaining popularity, but many Greek brands were still testing the waters with modest discounts, extended promotions or no real concept behind them.
How could TopShoes stand out without the budget or scale of its bigger competitors?
THE TURN
Playing it safe was making Black Friday easy to ignore.
The client’s initial preference was to spread smaller discounts of 20–30% across more products.
But Black Friday wasn’t built around ordinary offers.
It was about big discounts, limited time and selected products.
Instead of trying to make the promotion bigger, what if we made it more meaningful?
Do less. Make it count.
We convinced the client to take a different approach: fewer products, genuinely significant discounts of 50% or more, and a short promotional window.
And we added one simple rule.
Only black products.
That gave TopShoes a way to embrace Black Friday’s original spirit while creating something distinctive.
THE ANSWER
THE APPROACH
BLACK ENOUGH?
We turned the colour black into the campaign’s creative idea.
A selected range of black footwear, substantial discounts and a simple question that challenged the usual Black Friday noise.
Black Friday. Done right.
The campaign ran across social media and email, with a focused Black Friday promotion followed by a Cyber Monday offer.
Rather than competing on the number of products or the length of the sale, we made the offer itself the reason to pay attention.
THE IMPACT
+120% sales during the Black Friday weekend.
+140% social media engagement.
For a smaller retailer competing against much bigger names, the campaign generated attention by taking a different approach to an emerging shopping occasion.
We didn’t invent Black Friday. We simply took it seriously.
Work completed as part of my role at Weeroot agency.